Just Checking
by Danny Phantom SG-1
Summary: Will contemplates his immortality...and whether or not he can change it. Sort of depressing and morbid. Disturbing oneshot.


**A/N: Okay. I enjoy it when my favorite characters are in pain, yes? Well, that is difficult to do when your favorite character is immortal. So I gave Will what I think was some intense, painful thinking and it could be a little disturbing, I suppose. Sorry if that's the case, but I'm not really sure it is. Please let me know how this one turned out because I am really not sure.**

Just Checking

Four years into his "punishment", Will's dagger started to look real friendly.

In fact, every other lethal weapon seemed to give him a strange, longing feeling every time they were near.

But the dagger was here. Now. On the table right in front of him. And it was looking friendlier every second. So he stared at it pensively.

This is how Bootstrap found his son below the deck of the _Flying Dutchman_, the ship of which his son was the captain.

"Son…what are you doing?" Bill asked tentatively.

Without looking up from the dagger, Will answered, "Just…checking. On things."

Bill cleared his throat nervously. "What are you doing with that dagger?"

Will ignored his father's question and asked his own. "What would happen?"

Bill turned his head inquiringly, already apprehensively anticipating the answer. "What would happen if…what?"

Will finally tore his gaze from the weapon. "If I stabbed myself."

Bill winced at the question. No father ever wanted to hear his son utter those words, even if he was immortal. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Nothing."

Will narrowed his eyes at Bootstrap. "What do you mean 'nothing'?"

"I mean, you're immortal. You can't die. You can't even get hurt…physically, anyway. Nothing would happen."

"Well," Will started speaking a little more quickly, "what would happen if, say, I were to fall into the ocean and get ripped apart by a killer shark?"

Bill's eyes grew wide, but he shrugged dismissively. "I-I don't know. It's never happened before…"

"Yes, yes, I know. But theoretically…if that would chance, what would happen to me?"

Bill shook his head thoughtfully, as if this was an everyday conversation an indebted father would have with his immortal captain son. "I, uh…I suppose you would be dismembered or whatever and then…um…your torso would, I don't know, perhaps grow new limbs or some such nonsense," he made up an answer uncomfortably.

Will huffed, "Nonsense, indeed. What if I were completely dismantled, you know? Or my…my skull cracked open and I had no torso to gain new limbs? What would happen, then, to an immortal man like me, eh?"

His father merely shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know! Why are you even asking me this? Why are you thinking this way?"

"Because I can, alright! Being immortal, it doesn't bloody well matter, now, does it? Just answer me!"

"How do you expect me to know this sort of thing, huh?"

"Because you just ARE supposed to know! You're my father, for heaven's sake!"

Bill merely eyed his son worriedly. He had risen from his chair and was now standing menacingly over his father. Then, the look in his eyes changed from one of irritated anger to that of regret and sorrow.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted at you like that," he apologized quickly.

Bill relaxed a little. "Shouted? You shouldn't even be _thinking_ about that. I mean…think of Elizabeth," he said softly. He hated bringing her up; she was the source of all of his son's pain. But drastic times called for drastic measures.

"I _was_ thinking of her," Will said quietly.

Bill scrutinized his son. "What do you mean? She loves you…she wouldn't want you to think like that."

"How do you know? I mean…isn't it possible that she's…forgotten about me? Maybe she's tired of waiting and she's run off with a more trustworthy and consistent man." He thought for a moment, realizing just how inept he was in those areas. "Like Jack," he said dryly.

"Will, surely you have more faith and confidence than that in your wife? The woman you gave your heart to? She loves you and is waiting for you and she would never betray you like that."

Will sighed. "I know." Then, he began to stare once again at the dagger. "But...I was thinking…that maybe I'm just a burden to her. Maybe she feels she HAS to love me and wait for me. And if that's the case, then if I just…" he made a jabbing motion toward his nonexistent heart, "…it would be like setting her free. To love how she wants. It might hurt her at first if I was gone, but…it's got to be better than the pain she's feeling right now, if it's anything like mine. It would be like setting her free," he reemphasized, "like setting both of us free," he added as he casually lifted the weapon from its perch on the table.

"I…I don't think so, son," Bill said, not knowing what else to say to calm his distraught child.

Will felt the point of the dagger with his finger. He examined it carefully before setting it, pointed toward himself, in line with his gut. With a quick movement, he thrust the dagger into his stomach and waited to see what would happen.

Bill watched all of this in disturbed horror before hesitantly asking his son quietly, "Will…what are you doing?"

His son slowly retracted the fatal weapon from his gut and brought it up to eye level. He flipped it a few times just to be sure. Nothing. He looked down where there was supposed to be a giant, bleeding gash in his body. He watched in fascination as the skin began to heal and patch itself up rather quickly. And not a single drop of blood fell from his body. He didn't look back at his father as he answered calmly.

"Just checking."

**Depressingly morbid, maybe? Let me know. Review…please?**


End file.
